Before We Bomb Syria, What’s Happening in Libya?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

– Albert Einstein

Some may read my writings and think that when I say that the “leaders” in these United States are insane I am merely doing it for effect and that it’s an exaggeration. It isn’t.

If you read Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity above, it is clear the folks pulling the strings in this nation are completely and totally insane. As if anyone needed further proof, I will provide some here.

As we all know by now, Barack Obama and his neocon allies are pushing for military intervention in Syria, a country that has not attacked us and poses no imminent threat to the nation. Nevertheless, we are throwing our support behind the Al-Qaeda rebels for “humanitarian” reasons. We made a similar argument in Libya, and the decision ended up removing from earth John McCain’s good buddy Muammar al-Gaddafi. Well the results are in from Libya and they’re not good. Naturally, we should look at that epic failure and then get involved in another civil war which has nothing to do with us. USA! USA!

From the UK Independent:

A little under two years ago, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, urged British businessmen to begin “packing their suitcases” and to fly to Libya to share in the reconstruction of the country and exploit an anticipated boom in natural resources.

Yet now Libya has almost entirely stopped producing oil as the government loses control of much of the country to militia fighters.

Mutinying security men have taken over oil ports on the Mediterranean and are seeking to sell crude oil on the black market. Ali Zeidan, Libya’s Prime Minister, has threatened to “bomb from the air and the sea” any oil tanker trying to pick up the illicit oil from the oil terminal guards, who are mostly former rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi and have been on strike over low pay and alleged government corruption since July.

As world attention focused on the coup in Egypt and the poison gas attack in Syria over the past two months, Libya has plunged unnoticed into its worst political and economic crisis since the defeat of Gaddafi two years ago.Government authority is disintegrating in all parts of the country putting in doubt claims by American, British and French politicians that Nato’s military action in Libya in 2011 was an outstanding example of a successful foreign military intervention which should be repeated in Syria.

In an escalating crisis little regarded hitherto outside the oil markets, output of Libya’s prized high-quality crude oil has plunged from 1.4 million barrels a day earlier this year to just 160,000 barrels a day now. Despite threats to use military force to retake the oil ports, the government in Tripoli has been unable to move effectively against striking guards and mutinous military units that are linked to secessionist forces in the east of the country.

Though the Nato intervention against Gaddafi was justified as a humanitarian response to the threat that Gaddafi’s tanks would slaughter dissidents in Benghazi, the international community has ignored the escalating violence. The foreign media, which once filled the hotels of Benghazi and Tripoli, have likewise paid little attention to the near collapse of the central government.

“I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.

That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics…

I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars. So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president.”

The one flaw in your argument is to think that the neo-cons did NOT get what they wanted in previous assaults. They did and THAT is why they keep doing it. Our general misconception is that we believe war should be done either only when attacked or when there is some humane reason for doing so. These decisions are made based on selling military killing toys, investing in the war machine and consolidating power. So , while Albert was right…they are just crazy like foxes. Peace

all ‘governments’ should suffer the same fate…where by freeing their citizens to live without oppression or regulation by ‘rulers’…only self regulation by consenting adults….as in FREEDOM AND LIBERTY for ALL……